1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cell culturing vessel for culturing cells and a cell culturing device using the vessel.
2. Description of the Related Art
In regenerative medicine performed to treat diseases by using cells of patients themselves or others, cells collected from living bodies are used for transplantation therapy after cultured to increase their number or formed into a desired tissue form. Cells to be used for therapy should be cultured in a cell culturing clean room called “Cell Processing Center (CPC)” in accordance with GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice). The problems here are that preparation of cells for one patient requires much effort and cost because cell culture is performed manually by technical experts and that manual operation carries a biological contamination risk.
As a means for solving the above-mentioned problems, a device for automating a cell culturing step in a closed system has been developed. By using a closed system culturing vessel not requiring an opening or closing operation of its lid, automation of a cell culturing step and reduction in biological pollution risk can be achieved simultaneously.
On the other hand, there are two cell types, that is, a cell type that needs a growth factor produced by trophocytes called “feeder cells” during proliferation and a cell type that does not need this growth factor. The cell type such as ES (embryonic stem) cells, iPS (induced pluripotent stem) cells, cutaneous epithelial cells, corneal epithelial cells, and oral mucosal epithelial cells often need feeder cells. When cultured cells are used for therapy, feeder cells and cells to be used in therapy are desirably separated during culturing and are therefore cultured desirably in a cell culturing vessel having two culturing layers.
As a means for solving the above-mentioned problem, a cell culturing vessel and a culturing device as shown in Japanese Patent No. 4602460 have been proposed. According to this document, the cell culturing vessel has two culturing layers and the culturing device is equipped with a flow channel for supplying or discharging cells or a medium and a cell observation unit so that epithelial cells such as cutaneous epithelial cells, corneal epithelial cells, and oral mucosal epithelial cells can be automatically cultured in a closed system and the cultured state can be observed.
As a device capable of achieving automatic culturing of cell types not requiring feeder cells during their growth, a culturing device as shown in Patent Document 2 is proposed. The automatic culturing device disclosed in this document cultures cells, mainly stem cells, in a single culturing layer.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-151866 discloses a method of observing the adhesion state between cells and a substrate material.